Cyberspace: a 21st century diwan: the Internet is proving to be a valuable political tool and one which is playing an increasingly vital role in the Palestine-Israeli conflict. (Internet).

Within cyberspace there is a growing network of individuals and groups coalescing around the key demands for an end to Israeli occupation of Arab territories and the creation of a Palestinian state. This network constitutes a `swarm', an Internet-related term referring to a global body of people with a common cause using the Internet to share information, mobilise support and coordinate direct action online and, at times, on the streets.

A `swarm' is made possible by the Internet revolution, which allows people to share experiences and ideas and discover that others throughout the world are identifying the same issues. By interacting via the Internet with those others, the individual is no longer an isolated voice but part of a network of like-minded people--a `swarm'--which is dispersed and yet can constitute a significant grass roots protest movement.

While pro-Israeli activists may be attempting to mobilise their own `swarm' in order to defend and enforce the existing balance of power in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the potential size and power of a pro-Palestinian `swarm' is worth considering.

The vast majority of the 280 million Arabs would be likely members of a pro-Palestinian `swarm'. Even though only 0.6% of the Arab world uses the Internet and only 1.2% have personal computers, according to a recent survey in The Economist, the Arab `swarm' need not rely on-Internet connectivity as word can spread via the mosque, the media, the souq, and within families. The problem for an Arab `swarm' is that grass roots social activism not officially "approved" is uncommon in the Arab world. Arab governments may well fear the phenomenon of the `swarm' which cannot, by its amorphous nature, be manipulated and controlled.

The pro-Palestinian `swarm' takes on greater potential when other facts are considered. For example, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and, interestingly, in the USA where there are 10 million Muslims (compared to six million Jews). Also, the Palestinian cause is today a central issue for trade unionists, students, human rights advocates, environmentalists, peace activists and other lobby movements in the West. Even Jews are included in this `swarm' such as the liberal peace activists of Gush Shalom (www.gush-shalom.org) and those orthodox rabbis who renounce the modern-day state of Israel (www.jewsnotzionists.org).

This `swarm' may still be in its nascent stages and its impact may still appear negligible, yet modern information and communication technology has galvanised the potential of grass roots activism. A key element in this activism is in using the Internet as a tool for disseminating information to advocate a message and point of view to the existing `swarm' and onlookers. Individuals are setting up websites as alternative media sources to provide expanded and focused coverage on the Middle East. Such sites post what they believe are the best media reports to raise the awareness--and even the indignation--of the `swarm' with an alternative to the `reality' presented on the TV news bulletins.

Electronic Intifada (www.electronicintifada.net) is one such site which claims to challenge the "myth, distortion and spin in the media". The Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace (www.ccmep.org) is another, showing how some of the most active campaigners in the `swarm' are American citizens opposed to their country's Middle East policy.

Websites can provide an inexpensive and yet pervasive medium by which to address a global public with more direct control over the message. "It's our belief that the Internet will have a major impact on the franchise of the media monopolies," says Ahmed Amr, editor of Nile Media (www.NileMedia.com), an independently operated cyber magazine aimed at redressing what it sees as a pro-Israeli slant in the mainstream media. "Economies of scale no longer apply to disseminating information. The economics of distributing information have been changed for ever."

The Internet has also proved a boon for groups otherwise vilified by the Western media. Hizbollah, the militant Islamic group in Lebanon, runs 11 websites (www.hizbollah.org). Hizbollah says its websites are an "information resource" in its propaganda struggle against Israel, a weapon to turn the balance of information and knowledge in its favour, given that the balance of conventional military forces is not.

It is not essential to run a website to be involved in disseminating information globally. Individuals can do as much on their personal computers. Abu Moujahed is a Palestinian in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut who runs a youth centre and organises visits to the camp by foreign students. He contributes to the Palestinian cause by forwarding to his network of 200-plus contacts throughout the world regular e-mails which are sent to him by a Palestinian NGO in the West Bank (www.rapprochement.org). The e-mails consist of on-the-ground reports from peace activists, eye-witnesses and journalists in the Occupied Territories. From the squalor of Shatila camp, Abu Moujahed represents one of the countless `nodes' in the global `swarm' network and highlights the `viral' nature by which information can be received and passed on endlessly throughout this network.

Another key element in today's new IT-enabled activism is in using the Internet to mobilise and coordinate the `swarm' into various forms of direct action on the streets. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign